An ICP-MS and HPLC application

The technique high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled, not automatically, to inductively coupled plasma mass-spectrometry ICP-MS was performed for mercury speciation in practical analyses. In order to prove the system can be used in practical analysis, water samples were collected in a mining area, where the presence of mercury was known. Three types of water were analysed on the basis of the expected content of mercury(Hg) (wastewater, surface water, and drinking water). Total mercury and methylmercury were determined in the investigated samples, and preliminary results are reported in this paper. The performed technique may be advantageous, since it permits both instruments (HPLC and ICP-MS) to be used, and not exclusively to each other in this determination, as HPCL is not automatically coupled to ICP-MS that would prevent the instruments use for other analyses. The performed technique using HPLC-ICP-MS for methylmercury separation/detection results in a fast and easy-to-use method that permits the determination at both low and high levels (from 0.01 to 0.25 ppm) of methylmercury. ICP-MS allows a direct determination of ultratrace total mercury with the detection limit for mercury being 0.01 ppb.